Clontarf

Clontarf was established in Manning by the Christian Brothers in 1901. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found the Christian Brothers were amongst the worst perpetrators of abuse nationally, that the relevant Christian Brothers Provincial Council was aware of allegations of abuse from the 1930s onwards, and that between 1947 and 1968 they failed to prevent sexual abuse in their institutions. Western Australia’s Christian Brothers’ institutions were also a subject of the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care for their brutality, physical and sexual abuse. In 2024 they were called before the parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse in WA institutions.

Boys from the Subiaco Boys’ Orphanage were the first residents of Clontarf, followed by boys aged around 12 to 16 years from various backgrounds including state wards, orphans, private admissions, and child migrants from Britain and Malta. 

Originally known as the Clontarf Orphanage Industrial School for Junior Roman Catholic Boys, in its first year 70 boys on government subsidy lived at Clontarf, aged under 6 years to over 12 years. By 1907, there were 78 boys subsidised by the government, 52 of them under 12 years old. Government funding for the boys was withdrawn at the age of fourteen, when they would have to leave. In 1918, 53 of the 169 boys were private admissions. Around 100-150 boys lived there until after World War II, when child migrants from Britain and Malta arrived and up to 280 boys could be accommodated. In the 1960s, Clontarf again housed around 150 boys with the number falling to 60 or fewer in the 1970s. From 1962, there were more boys who were privately placed than state wards.

Electric lights were installed and operated in August 1905, followed by toilets, urinals and septic tanks. Further improvements were made after a Health Department inspection in 1917, and hot water showers were installed by 1927.

In 1918 the Clontarf Brass Band featured regularly on the Perth social scene. A manual trades workshop was built around this time with the space divided into two halves, one used for carpentry, and the other a bootmaker’s workshop. Money for the institution was raised through the sale of goods made by the boys.

A road from Clontarf to Albany Highway, paid for jointly by government and public donations, was officially opened on 10 April 1927. This gave the isolated Clontarf better access to Perth.

Between 1926 and 1946, boys were sent to work in a variety of trades, or to farms as labourers. Some stayed at Clontarf, or worked in other Christian Brothers institutions. The Child Welfare Department instituted formal ‘service agreements’ to be lodged with child welfare authorities after abuse by employers was found to occur under existing ‘handshake agreements’ with the institution. 

Between 1936-41 Brother Francis Paul Keaney was principal at Clontarf. Keaney was the subject of submissions to the Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care and the child sexual abuse royal commission both for his sadistic abuse, and his oversight of sexual abuse of the boys. Boys did not have adequate clothes, footwear or nutrition, and were beaten as they were forced to clear the land and construct buildings at Clontarf, including a chapel and dormitory.  In 2001, Senator Andrew Murray raised a Matter of Public Interest stating  that “He (Keaney) was a sadist who indulged in criminal assault and who knowingly protected rings of predatory brothers engaged in systemic long-term sexual assault on defenceless children.” Boys who absconded from Clontarf were usually returned by the Child Welfare Department, despite reporting abuse.

Clontarf was requisitioned by the defence forces in 1942 , and the boys were evacuated to either Tardun (school-age boys) or Bindoon (boys over 14 years of age) on 1 March 1942, returning in February 1945. 

The Clontarf Brass Band was re-established in March 1945 and the public rallied to support Clontarf and other children’s homes with a ‘Children’s Victory Celebration’ at the Cannington showgrounds in December of that year. Other donations were received to purchase essentials. In the the 1950’s allegations of sexual abuse by the bandmaster were made by the boys.

In early 1947, Clontarf was inspected by child welfare authorities with a view to admitting child migrants from Britain. The inspection report is quoted in part by Coldrey (pp.146-147) and shows that Clontarf was poorly fitted out in almost every aspect. The dining room, kitchen, dormitories, laundry, bathroom, classrooms, gymnasium and library were substandard. As the church was keen to be involved in child migration, the Archbishop made a large donation to improve the condition of facilities at Clontarf.

In 1947, boys sent from Britain as unaccompanied child migrants were placed in Clontarf. Coldrey reports (p.149) that there were 191 boys in September 1947, including 47 British child migrants. By 1953, the Child Welfare Department reported that Clontarf could accommodate 280 boys. Until 1967, the number of boys at Clontarf rarely fell below 150. Boys from Malta were also moved to Clontarf at this time, whose experiences were captured in the National Museum of Australia’s “Inside” project.

“From the first days I witnessed and then personally experienced the harsh discipline and the use of the infamous straps made of several layers of leather and reinforced with metal to make them weightier and more painful. The staff carried these up the sleeves of their cassocks and used them with terrible efficiency. In the absence of their straps staff resorted to sticks, canes and fists even on very young  boys and those who were maimed through accidents. The attitude of some staff was sadistic.

There was also this process of depersonalisation at work at Clontarf and a loss of identity. I soon became a number. My Christian name was never used, only my number and surname. My personal belongings were soon taken away from me, my books were burnt, and my mail home was censored. We were forbidden to speak Maltese.” Orphaning Experiences Godfrey Gilmour, 2011

Children were forced into physically hard work at the institution, referred to as ‘hard labour’ and ‘slavery’ by the boys in various testimonies to inquiries. In October 1950, 19 boys were involved in a truck roll-over working in the Collier pine plantation in Como. The West Australian newspaper reported (6 October 1950, p.2) that seventeen boys were hospitalised.

“There was a time when us boys had to go out on the truck to pick up second-hand bricks which we had to load on the truck and then unload when we got back. All this work was done with bare hands and sandals and I remember being hit on the head with a brick (I still carry the scars) no medical treatment was given – I still had to carry on with the other boys until the job was done.” Submission 251, Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care

In evidence to the Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care, later known as the ‘Forgotten Australians’ inquiry, a man described (Forgotten Australians 2004, p.42), a life in Clontarf that has left a deep impression on him: ‘In 1954, aged 11, I was sent to Clontarf Boys Town…where Hell continued for the rest of my childhood’.

On 15 December 1955, 53 boys were being transported to families in the south-west to be boarded out for the Christmas holidays. On the way, the bus collided with a truck on a narrow bridge at Mundijong. This serious incident resulted in the death of 11-year-old Michael Bowman, with three other boys having either one or both legs amputated in the crash. Nineteen boys had physical injuries that required hospitalisation and ongoing treatment and it is likely that the crash left a lasting psychological impact on many of the survivors. Michael Bowman’s short life and the cause of his death are memorialised in the Michael Bowman Park in Serpentine where annual gatherings are held.

After 1970, the child welfare authorities stopped reporting on the number of child migrants at Clontarf. By 1975, Clontarf provided short or long-term accommodation for 59 boys in the 12-15 age group, with another 50 attending school daily on the Clontarf campus. In 1982, Clontarf was no longer providing a ‘full “substitute care” program,’ and in December 1983 it closed.

The Clontarf Old Boys Heritage Committee have preserved the history of the site’s period as a Home for boys by opening a Heritage Trail in September 2012, refurbishing the Clock Tower, and having Keaney’s name removed from the Memorial Hall.